[Vision2020] [Spam 3.70] Megafreeloaders

[Robert Dickow]

Not surprising. It’s often We the People who end up paying plenty for the benefit of the Fat Cats. For more on how the People pay, read “Imperial San Francisco” by Gray Brechin (http://www.ucpress.edu/book.php?isbn=9780520250086). Learn how folks like the Floods wrangled it so the People pay for personal pet projects that end up decimating an entire mountain range’s forest resources (mostly giant Sequoia, by the way…it used to ALL look like Sequoia National Park!), permanently engulf a valley more gorgeous (according to John Muir, Teddy Roosevelt et alibi) than Yosemite (the Hetch-Hetchy), seriously silt up a huge bay, create massive off shore sandbars that impede shipping lanes (outside the Golden Gate), filled entire river valleys with gravel, and largely created the mega-rich people who invested virtually none of their own capital yet enabled them to build their private dynasties of wealth and sprawling Burlingame estates. 

 

I have a stinking suspicion (sic) that Imperial/Exxon  ran the numbers ahead of time a lot more carefully that the State of Idaho. I’ll just betcha.

 

Bob Dickow, troublemaker

 

Postlude: The above history took place mostly in the nineteenth century. I have learned that the vacant lot that I accidently set fire to as a kid was vacant because it sat over the route of the underground aqueduct than runs water from Hetch-Hetchy Reservoir in the Sierra Nevada to Crystal Springs Lake atop the San Andreas Fault; the lake buffers San Francisco’s water. And, I used to play in Flood Park many a-weekend as a child. I used to ‘park’ with my girl friend at the Pulgas Water Temple, a huge Grecian-style monument where millions of gallons of Hetch-Hetchy water roars in torrents from the aqueduct into Crystal Springs. (And… that water is still the best damned tasting tap water in the United States. So, a tip of the hat to Mr. Flood and his cronies.)

 

P.S. The Megaloads have very little to do with this rambling  V2020 comment, really. I just couldn’t help being nostalgic.

 

From: vision2020-bounces at moscow.com [mailto:vision2020-bounces at moscow.com] On Behalf Of Ron Force
Sent: Wednesday, February 01, 2012 7:16 AM
To: vision2020 at moscow.com
Subject: [Spam 3.70] [Vision2020] Megafreeloaders

 



February 01, 2012
Our View, Idaho Transportation Department: Sharing the roads with megafreeloaders
 - Idaho Statesman
When it comes to the oversized truck shipments known as “megaloads,” everything is big. The size and weight, the controversy, the inconvenience to motorists stuck on the highway at the wrong time — and now, even the taxpayer subsidy.
The Idaho Transportation Department is supposed to recoup costs associated with the megaloads. But according to ITD, proceeds from shipping permits are falling some $645,000 short of covering annual costs.
How’s that for running government like a business?
After hearing this, the Senate Transportation Committee approved a series of fee increases designed to offset the losses.
According to the Lewiston Tribune, the state hasn’t increased its fees for oversized shipments since 2007. A lot has happened over these past five years. The “megaload” issue has exploded into a statewide controversy, with oil companies proposing oversized shipments along a breathtaking and narrow riverside stretch of U.S. 12.
Since the state seems determined to embrace these shipments — claiming economic benefits that are at best questionable — then the least the ITD can do is keep a closer eye on the costs.
“Our View” is the editorial position of the Idaho Statesman. It is an unsigned opinion expressing the consensus of the Statesman’s editorial board.

 

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